Adherence Programs

Many organizations have started looking for solutions to solving the public health issue of medication non-adherence. Due to their accessibility, community pharmacists are especially well-positioned to positively influence patient adherence and improve health outcomes.

This is a great place to start if you are looking for different models of patient adherence programs to implement in your practice. Many of the programs can be customized to fit your workflow and allow flexibility among different business models.

Simplify My MedsTM

Simplify My MedsTM is a turnkey adherence program developed for the exclusive use of members of the National Community Pharmacists Association. The program provides NCPA members with the tools and training needed to help them implement a coordinated refill program in their pharmacy.

Simplify My Meds is a personalized service based on the idea of "refill synchronization," a concept in which all of a patient's prescriptions are coordinated to be refilled on the same day each month. The concept of "refill synchronization" was successfully developed in 1996 by a pharmacist-owner in Long Beach, CA, and improves medication adherence by reducing gaps in therapy and promoting monthly medication counseling.

Synchronization also revolutionizes pharmacy operations by changing the dispensing function from a reactive operation to a proactive process based on increased pharmacy efficiency, more predictable daily workloads, and tighter inventory control.

The Appointment Based Model (ABM) is a synchronized prescription refill program designed to improve patients’ health outcomes by improving medication persistency and decreasing gaps in therapy. ABM program implementation materials, which are provided by the Alliance for Patient Medication Safety, include a manual, brochure, letter to doctors, doctor fax, patient agreement, patient card, and pre-appointment call sheet are available for download and use.

Script Your Future is a campaign of the National Consumers League (NCL), a private, non-profit organization founded in 1899. As an advocacy organization, NCL is working to educate consumers and key health stakeholders on the importance of taking medication as directed.

The centerpiece of the first-of-its-kind, multi-year campaign is a website, www.ScriptYourFuture.org, which provides tools to support patient efforts to adhere to their prescribed medicine. Tools include free text message reminders, sample questions, medication lists and charts to keep track of medicines, and fact sheets on common chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure. A companion campaign site with adherence tools for health care professionals, www.ScriptYourFuture.org/HCP, was also launched.

Script Your Future is supported by a coalition of nearly 100 public and private partners and sponsors, including health care professional groups, chronic disease groups, health insurance plans, pharmaceutical companies, business organizations, consumer groups, as well as researchers and government agencies. NCPA is pleased to be a Committed Partner of Script Your Future.

MedHere Today™ began with a working title of “Mind Your Medicine” about six years ago. Two pharmacist-owners of an independent pharmacy in rural Missouri noticed that by making prescriptions more available and working more closely with their patients in regard to their medications (in classic MTM practice) that their patients were becoming more adherent and some reporting better outcomes. In the intervening years, their approach to medication non-adherence has caught the attention of industry leaders from major pharmaceutical manufacturers to wholesalers, pharmacy organizations and many independents.

The MedHere Today™ system will teach you step-by-step how to implement the most comprehensive adherence program in existence today. We will show you how to add significant prescription volume, improve pharmacy operations and work flow, all while making a big difference in your patients’ lives.

To learn more about the MedHere Today™ methodology and acquire the system for your pharmacy, please visit the Web site.

The Business Case for Adherence

Adherence represents the ultimate win-win-win for the patient, health care provider, and the payer. For pharmacies, an adherent patient base produces a healthier bottom line with increased volume and predictable revenue stream. If your pharmacy practice is considering implementing an adherence program like the ones listed above, be sure to check out the tools and case studies below.

Adherence Calculators: Making the Business Case
Educating patients about proper use of their medication and adherence not only makes for good patient care, it also makes good business sense. To aid community pharmacists with understanding the financial impact of an adherence program, NCPA created two simple calculators to model the possible financial benefits to a pharmacy from raising adherence rates.

Adherence Impact Calculator Case Studies
The following case studies use the Adherence Impact Calculator with real-life scenarios taken from community pharmacies. The examples are based on actual data and demonstrate the financial benefits of implementing a coordinated refill program.

Adherence—It Only Takes a Minute
Looking for ways to incorporate adherence activities into your pharmacy? Look no further. These short, easy-to-read articles provide clinical pearls, best practices, communication tips, and more evidence about how adherence can boost your bottom line.